Re: Góquim
From: | Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> |
Date: | Wednesday, August 6, 2003, 10:32 |
Quoting Peter Bleackley <Peter.Bleackley@...>:
> Staving Thomas Wier:
> >Quoting Christian Thalmann <cinga@...>:
> >
> > > One of the verb affixes is called "infinite". Is that a
> > > typo for "infinitive", or is it some kind of tense used for
> > > general truths and timeless static situations? The latter
> > > would be cool, but I somewhat doubt it was the intention.
> >
> >If so, the traditional name for such a tense is "gnomic".
>
> What a wonderful name for a tense! Presumably, an elvish language should
> always include a gnomic tense.
Hm, unfortunately, Quenya uses a tense called "aorist" for that. And if I
recall my Greek correctly (fat chance!), that means etymologically much the
same as "infinite".
Standard example: The Quendi are _i carir quettar omainen_ "those who form
words with voices".
My Elvish lang uses the uninflected verb for that. Given its most common
function, a traditionalist western philologist would undoubtedly named
it "imperfect".
Andreas
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